What Is the Rule of Law?

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What is the rule of law? The Rule of Law is the principle that no one is above the law. It is based upon fundamental principles which can be discovered, but which cannot be created through the act of will. The most important application of the rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with return, publicly disclosed law, adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure steps that are referred to as due process. This principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary governance, whether by a totalitarian leader or by mob rule. Thus, the rule of law is hostile both to dictatorship and to anarchy. The rule of law is emphasized through many separate ideas. Among them are that law and order is contrast to anarchy, the running of government in line with the law (ie: “legal government”) and normative discussion about the rights of the state as compared to the individual Albert Venn Dicey described the rule of law as acting in three ways, the predominance of regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power, equality before the law, and lastly, that the law of the constitution are not the source but the consequence of the rights of the individuals. Public authorities must act within the law (a second approach to the rule). Any actions that are ultra vires cannot be sanctioned by the courts. Entick v Carrington was a landmark case with the famous dictum: “If this is law it would be found in our books, but no such law ever existed in this country”. Law and order requires the prevention of crime only, and, as such, it does not matter by what means these are achieved, or what the characteristics of the law are. This concept of the rule of law can, therefore, be upheld by even the most tyrannical dictatorship. Any substantive version of the rule of law as it applies to the
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